STAWELL Secondary College will celebrate NAIDOC Week with the help of indigenous artwork provided by the school’s students.
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College students and staff have been celebrating indigenous culture all week.
Friday will see a smoking ceremony to cleanse the school community and welcome them to Aboriginal country.
Year 11 student Heidi Chatfield and her sister Chelsea, in year 12, have used painting and murals to introduce their Djab Wurrung culture to classmates.
Heidi has painted more than 12 paintings, including three large canvasses, to display around they school.
She has also turned her paintings into prints, calendars, and postcards to sell so she can buy more art supplies.
“I paint all the animals and the plants: lizards, turtles, eels, golden wattles and gum trees,” Heidi said.
“They are all different, some are about hunting and collecting.”
“I just like painting, I always have.”
Heidi has spent the last few weeks preparing her work for display and she said classmates and Stawell residents really liked the paintings.
“I want to keep painting after school,” she said.
Heidi’s artwork has being presented in the front office for the whole week to showcase her talent.
Chelsea said she had painted a mural on a school wall for NAIDOC week.
She said the mural represented the school coming together with students’ hand prints on an Aboriginal flag.
“I planned to get Heidi’s paintings on display and do a school mural, which we did on Thursday,” she said.
During Thursday’s home group session the whole schooltook part in an indigenous painting that boys toilets wall.
The mural is located on a common walkway and will be visible to all members of the school community.
On Friday students have been asked to participate by wearing the indigenous colours of red, black and yellow and bringing a gold coin donation.
The money collected will go towards the Cathy Freeman Foundation, which aims to close the gap in indigenous disadvantage.
There was also a smoking ceremony scheduled for Friday.
“My Dad, Tim, will come in and welcome people to country and sort of cleanse them,” Chelsea said.
Each year level will have two students take part in the ceremony.